The Great Hall of the Four Peoples.

"This is Your Majesty's will!"

Gu Xichou stood in the middle of the speaker's seat and said helplessly.

"Your Excellency, as a scholar, a minister, should take the system as the criterion, uphold the righteousness to support the monarch, Your Majesty should be admonished if there is an improper move, why should Your Majesty's will be your own shirk, if so, what is the use of the minister?"

Wang Fuzhi said rhetorically.

Yang Qing's first step was for the Four Peoples Conference to question Gu Xichou, as the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, he should restrain the monarch with etiquette, even if the emperor's own date of ancestor worship is not in accordance with the etiquette law, you have to stop it, otherwise what do you want this Shangshu to do? Then Gu Xichou had to take a carriage to run three hundred miles in the form of a horse relay, and ran back from Fengyang to stand on the floor of the Great Hall of the Four Peoples to explain this......

This has happened more than once.

The system of the Four People's Congresses has been in operation for more than two years now, and these deputies, especially the permanent deputies who remained in Nanjing, are no longer the ignorant they were at the beginning. They had all adapted to their power, and often questioned some of the policies of the imperial court and brought the scholars over for questioning, especially on issues such as spending money, corruption of officials, and the legitimacy of the law. It made the cabinet scholars have a headache when they saw them, especially the civil officials, because those military attaches belong to the Metropolitan Governor's Office, everyone knows what they do must be agreed by Yang Qing, and the representatives of the four people are also bullying the weak and afraid of the hard, so they will not find trouble with their own backstage boss!

But civil officials are different!

Moreover, it is indeed easier for civilian officials to expose some issues that are concerned by public opinion, not to mention that corruption alone is very eye-catching.

Of course, there must be corruption among military attachés.

But their corruption has a military justice department, second, it comes from a system, and the outside world may not understand it, and third, they are indeed more honest than civilian officials, at least in the eyes of outsiders who can't figure out their set of benefit distribution, these military generals who don't deduct military salaries, don't harass the people, and don't ask for bribes are comparable to Haigangfeng compared with the civilian officials who have the most daily connections with them.

But today's incident ......

"Ladies and gentlemen, I don't understand, what does Your Majesty have to do with sacrificing his ancestors and the Four Peoples Assembly?"

Gu Xichou said.

"Whose money does it cost to worship the Emperor's Mausoleum?"

Wang Fuzhi asked.

He is vaguely opposed to the leader of the party, after all, he is the most famous of these representatives, he is a long-established Confucian, and he has been father and son for two generations, and he stands out among the representatives of the four peoples who are full of peddlers and pawns.

"Of the court."

Gu Xichou's tone immediately weakened.

"Since it is the money of the imperial court that is spent, that is, the taxes paid by the people of the world, and since the people of the world spend money for His Majesty to worship his ancestors, why can't the people of the world ask? Since the return of His Majesty, he has paid tribute to Emperor Renzu in the central capital, repaired roads for the imperial court, rebuilt the facilities of the imperial mausoleum, and prepared various needs, adding up to a total of no less than 300,000 yuan, which is all provided by the people to reduce food and clothing. ”

Wang Fuzhi said with the bill.

"This is not counting the cost of summoning those who participated from all over the country, the governor of Yunnan died of two horses on the way back in a hurry, and these two horses were also paid for by the imperial court!"

A representative shouted.

"Yes, we can manage it with our money!"

Another delegate shouted.

"Gu Shangshu, although they are full of copper stinking, it is simply insulting, but Your Majesty's move is indeed inappropriate, the Ming Emperor has his own system of worship, how can he be so casual, this is related to etiquette and must not be negligent."

A scholar representative said, shaking a folding fan.

"What do you mean?"

Gu Xichou said.

"Let's wait for the winter solstice."

The representative of the scholar said.

A few of his companions nodded approvingly.

"You called me three hundred miles away for this little thing?"

Gu Xichou said speechlessly.

"It's about etiquette, what's the trivial matter?"

The representative of the scholar said with a serious face.

Gu Xichou brushed his sleeves away.

This old man is really angry, he is in his sixties and has been riding in a carriage for more than 300 miles in a day and a night, and it is actually for this kind of, why don't these idle representatives of the four people go to experience the taste of that kind of bumps? Fortunately, there was a newly built national highway, and his carriage was shock-absorbing enough, otherwise without the national highway and the shock-absorbing carriage, he would have gone to the hospital bed and lay down. He was so busy in Fengyang that he was so busy paying homage to the Emperor's Mausoleum, and it was maddening to have to work so hard to come back and be angry with these guys.

He didn't know that there were two people in the back watching him and laughing happily.

"Duke Chu, you are right, sometimes public opinion can also be manipulated, let's secretly instigate even these scholars to follow!"

Li Yutian said with a smile.

On the contrary, this matter was led by the representatives of the scholars, and those representatives of agriculture and industry and commerce were not very concerned, and they only cared about the amount of money spent, and the most active ones were the representatives of the scholars, and Yang Qing was just agitating in private through some scholars who had taken refuge in him. It is said that there are a large number of scholars who have taken refuge in Yang Qing, whether it is the trend of inflammation or the children of industrial and commercial capitalists, there are many scholars who are attached to Yang Qing's system, and even those who praise him in the newspapers, in the end, these guys' temperament is like that. And among the representatives of the scholars, they agitated on the grounds of maintaining the imperial court system and upholding the etiquette and law, and naturally there were inevitably those who were eager to show their sense of existence, or simply read and read stupidly.

They're the ones who love to do this kind of thing!

"But we also have to be careful that others use the Four Peoples Conference against us!"

Li Yutian then said.

In fact, this has also happened, and the gentry, after adapting to the assembly of the four peoples, began to learn to use this system immediately, but so far with little success, but they also need to be vigilant......

"First of all, we are on the side of the vast majority of the people, and we are supported because our reforms have benefited the vast majority of the people, and those who oppose us are only those with vested interests who are a tiny minority. As long as the current method of selecting the representatives of the four peoples remains unchanged, and the land is not used as a qualification like King Gui, then there will always be more people who support us than those who support our opponents, and the gap between the population bases of the two sides is too great.

To say that one hundred to one is to overestimate the latter.

With the popularization of education, this kind of comparison will only become more and more beneficial to us, if education is not popularized, they can deceive, and after education is popularized and the people's wisdom is enlightened, they can no longer even deceive.

In the same way, as the people become richer, it will still be more and more beneficial to us.

After all, ordinary people are not blind!

They can see who is helping them, who is bringing them a good life, and they all know how they used to be, and who will stand with our opponents? ”

Yang Qing looked at the representatives of the four people in the discussion and said.

"That's right!"

Li Yutian said.

"Of course, none of that matters!"

But Yang Qing said next, and after finishing speaking, he turned around, and then said the most practical words to Li Yutian: "The important thing is that the gun is in our hands." ”

Li Yutian smiled and nodded.

Gu Xichou, who had to drive more than 300 miles back to Fengyang again, then ran to Huoqiu, and Zhu Cihong, who didn't know about Yang Qing's conspiracy, was still willing to respect this kind of public opinion and show his image of being kind and streaming. He happily accepted Gu Xichou's advice, the original upcoming sacrifice to the Emperor's Mausoleum was rescheduled to the winter solstice, and those governors and capitals who had been summoned would wait in Nanjing first, anyway, it was only a few months, His Majesty the Emperor had been waiting for six years, did he care about waiting for a few more months?

But then he was dumbfounded.

Without knowing anything, a number of holy decrees were issued from Nanjing and directly delivered to the vassal kings of various places through the post road.

Even including King Fu.

Although King Fu himself participated.

But the careful and thoughtful Yang Qing still didn't forget to give him a copy as well.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty!"

Lu Liuliang said cautiously.

Zhu Cihong propped up the table with his hands, lowered his head and stared motionlessly at the spread out holy decree.

A decree given in one's own name.

He was actually the first time he could see it from someone else, the lines of words on it, the bright red jade seal imprint, almost completely covered his field of vision, at this moment he couldn't hear what others said and couldn't see anything else, he kept that posture with a gloomy face......

"Your Majesty, this traitor is too rampant!"

Mao Qiling said indignantly.

At this time, he had already broken his appearance, not only did he lose several teeth in his mouth, but his lips were not lightly injured, but fortunately, at this time, the tooth prosthesis technology was already very mature, and in fact, the Song Dynasty was able to inlay teeth, so he didn't have to worry too much about this injury. At least he was not like Wu Weiye, who was persecuted by Yang Qing and lay in bed in a vegetative state until he died, so he still loyally accompanies His Majesty every day, showing his loyalty to His Majesty.

"Your Majesty, what we need to worry about most at this time is not his rampant problem, but the purpose of his move."

Huang Zongxi said.

He did not follow Zhu Cihong before, but was active in Jiangsu and Zhejiang for the emperor, and now with the official return of the emperor, he can finally show his talent by the emperor's side.

"He is obviously targeting King Gui and King Jingjiang, he is clearing external obstacles for misdeeds, King Gui and King Jingjiang are heavy troops after all, and they are all clans that will not sit idly by and watch them usurp the Ming Dynasty. He is playing the trick of coercing the Son of Heaven to order the princes, so as to force the king of Gui and the king of Jingjiang to go north, if the two kings go north, they will be poisoned, if the two kings refuse to go north, then they will ask for it in the name of His Majesty, and hold the righteousness in their hands to obey and rebel. At this time, His Majesty must make a decision immediately, if the two kings are harmed by it, it will be a big deal, Your Majesty should return to the southern capital as soon as possible to enter the palace to collect the jade seal, and he must not let him act recklessly with the jade seal! ”

He said.

"Your Majesty can't return to the southern capital, if Your Majesty returns to the southern capital, you will have a cup of poisonous wine!"

Mao Qiling objected.

What he said is not unreasonable, at least this is still the territory of the Fu Domain, and scattering those Japanese slaves around can still provide protection, and King Fu is also afraid that the emperor's death will cause trouble here, at least he will not allow anyone to poison him, but who knows how to die violently after entering the palace in Nanjing?

I'm afraid that the palace is already Yang Qing's people.

Yang Qing himself is a miracle doctor, and a miracle doctor is generally a master of playing with poison, who knows if he will let any of his palace cronies add ingredients to the emperor's food and tea?

"Then how to save the two kings?"

Lu Liuliang said.

"The two kings both have large armies, what can they do if they don't go north to Yang Qing? Is it really necessary to attack Guilin and Guangzhou? The army of nearly 100,000 under the Erwang Department is well-equipped and well-trained, and it is not inferior to Yang Qing's subordinates in the slightest, and the last time it was the Marine Corps, which was originally the most elite of Yang Qing's subordinates. But the army is still using arquebuses, the second king has the help of wolf soldiers, and the two Guangxi have the obstruction of the mountains, Yang Qing may not be so easy to succeed, if he loses a lot in Liangguang, it just so happens that His Majesty will give him a fatal blow! ”

Mao Qiling said.

"How about Jin Shenghuan, isn't he also dead in a blink of an eye?"

Huang Zongxi said.

This is to hope for the two kings, but the emperor doesn't do anything, why do they think that the gentry of Liangguang will work hard for the emperor, they throw King Gui and King Jingjiang out and set up their sons.

Yang Qing just wanted the two kings to go north.

It's not to take back the two feudatories.

In the final analysis, if the emperor wants people to help, he first has to make an appearance himself, and if he doesn't do anything, he expects others to be substitutes for the dead, and no one in this world is so stupid. In fact, Huang Zongxi was right, and Yang Qing expected it to be the same, but it was obvious that what was right was not necessarily useful......

Zhu Cihong suddenly took a deep breath.

"Since it is a holy decree, let the blessed king respect the decree!"

He said slowly.

"Your Majesty......"

Huang Zongxi wanted to say something.

However, he saw that His Majesty the Emperor suddenly straightened up, and then reached under the table with his hands, and lifted the table at once, and the decree flew out along with the things on the table, and then His Majesty the Emperor turned around and walked away without looking back. Behind him, Huang Zongxi and the three of them lowered their heads and didn't dare to speak again, until Zhu Cihong's footsteps disappeared, and the three of them raised their heads at the same time, Lu Liuliang picked up the holy decree silently, but Huang Zongxi turned his head with disdain......

"It's really worthy of the first emperor's species!"

He whispered.

"Da Ke, do you think those village sages in Liangguang will care about the lives of King Gui and King Jingjiang?"

He then asked Mao Qiling.

At this time, Lu Liuliang left by himself, he went to send the holy decree back to King Fu, King Fu was obviously deliberately angry with the emperor, and his nephew was about to eat him bankrupt.

"What does that have to do with us?"

Mao Qiling said.

"Haven't you found Erhama yet?"

He then asked.

Huang Zongxi shook his head.

Jiang Xizhe's affairs in the Beiya Prison are still in a state of secrecy, and the outside world does not know about it at all, as his senior brother Huang Zongxi, and even his teacher Liu Zongzhou, are mobilizing their connections to search everywhere. But even if Ying Tianfu was enough to give them face, he still couldn't find any trace like the world had evaporated these days, and his own family had even sent people to those coal kilns to look for it.

"Erhama Yoshiren Tianxiang, you will always find it!"

Mao Qiling said.

"I hope so!"

Huang Zongxi sighed and left by himself.

Ding Kuichu walked into the room immediately after he left, Mao Qiling glanced at him, and then walked directly to the overturned table, turned it over again and picked up the fallen pen, ink, paper and inkstone, especially Zhu Cihong's personal seal. And Ding Kuichu said a few words outside, and the guards quickly closed the door of this room that was actually Zhu Cihong's study.